County Commissioner's Office

County Talk
By
Lamar Paris - Commissioner

Q.  Will SPLOST pay for the five new fire engines that the county purchased recently?
A. Yes.  I have dealt with this question several different times. The SPLOST sales tax money will be utilized to pay off the $880,000 debt on the new fire engines.  Not only will this save money from our general budget, but without the anticipation of the SPLOST sales tax being extended, the fire engines would never have been ordered.  Because of these new engines the county is safer and we are very hopeful that our ISO fire rating will be decreased, which in turn should lower fire insurance premiums for many residents of the county. We are now one of the best equipped rural fire departments in the state.

Q. When reading information in a paid advertisement in the North Georgia News in November, someone indicated that our fire department “needs more attention and funding instead of budget cuts.”  It seems to me that we are spending a lot on our firemen. Are we spending too much?
A. NO! First, it is hard for me to imagine that anyone would say that our fire department needs more funding.  Our fire department has the largest budget of any northeast Georgia county north of Gainesville.  Could they use more funding? Certainly they could, but do they require more funding? No.  If there is one thing that I have learned since becoming commissioner, it is that there is no end to what can be spent on a fire department. The cost of fire equipment and supplies is tremendous and unbelievable.

However, my goal has been to provide our firemen with the best and safest equipment available, but as with any department, we must be realistic with how much the taxpayers should be required to spend.  We have made very wise decisions with our equipment and facility additions and this has been done with the counsel and advice of the fire departments.

Q. Should we be paying our firemen higher salaries?
A.  Some have suggested that the paid firemen need higher salaries. I agree that I would like to be able to pay them higher salaries, but the same would hold true for just about every county employee.  Our pay can not keep up with the metro departments, but  we are able to help make up for some of the pay with good benefits, safe equipment and the quality of life here in the mountains.

Q. If the county has a budget for the fire department, why do the individual fire stations solicit donations from the public each year?
A.  Each of the five main  stations, (#10-Blairsville,  #2- Jones Creek, #3-Owltown, #4-Ivy Log, #5-Suches) have their own volunteers and leadership.  Depending on the number of volunteers, they each have different needs that are not funded by the county fire department including personal and protective equipment, radios and additional rescue equipment.  Each area of the county has different needs.  The Owltown station has had more flooding issues, so they have the need for a different type of rescue equipment than Suches. Suches has more mountain rescue and motorcycle accidents, so they require their specialized equipment. 

The volunteers give a tremendous amount of time to the county and its citizens by maintaining extensive training and continuing to respond to accident, fire, rescue and many other emergency scenes.  It is vital that the communities in which they serve continue to support them.

Q.  I would like to see the county build a new library.  Will we be able to do that with the new SPLOST sales tax?
 A. First, you need to remember that the SPLOST sales tax is not new.  It has been in existence since 1986.   We are simply voting to extend the current 7% sales tax for an additional six years.

Second, while our library is definitely over crowded and yes, it would be nice to be able to afford to build a new library, we feel remodeling the existing building is the most financially sound approach to take at this time.  The library building has been re-roofed and had a new HVAC system installed in the last three years.  The existing building is 6500 sq ft. and in good condition and our preliminary plan is to add about 4500 sq ft to the existing building.   This should give us growth room for the next few years.   In the mean time, should additional state funding become available in the future, we could look at a new facility in a few years.

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